About Me

My life was described by one of my editors as “impossibly exotic” – although really it was not my life, but me, that was the exotic, the uprooted plant, the one who didn’t belong, always living in someone else’s backyard...
Now I am back in Australia, the returning native learning to live where I was born. Writer, traveler, environmentalist. Author of The Isles of Glory trilogy (The Aware, Gilfeather, The Tainted); The Mirage Makers trilogy (Heart of the Mirage, Shadow of Tyr, Song of the Shiver Barrens); The Stormlord trilogy The Last Stormlord, Stormlord Rising, Stormlord's Exile, and writing as Glenda Noramly, a stand-alone book Havenstar. LATEST:
THE FORSAKEN LANDS
A clash of cultures and magic as traders and buccaneers hunt for spices and wealth in the Va-forsaken half of the world ... even as the unidentified darkness of plague and murder stalks their own land.
THE LASCAR'S DAGGER and THE DAGGER'S PATH available worldwide now! Final book, THE FALL OF THE DAGGER out mid-April.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Kementarian Dalam Negeri Loves Ridicule?

There's a whole website up now to describe the insanity of the restricted/banned books issue. Do take a look here. This is so insanely ridiculous that one bookseller was prompted to mutter about Kafka, andI can see why.

The Malaysian Home Ministry (Kementarian Dalam Negeri) could not have found a better way to ridicule themselves, and their country, than this one. And the totally irrational decisions of their officers down in Johor have certainly made people wonder if they are on the take and will clear a book if they are paid under the table. After all it's the only real reason most of us can think of for them to "restrict" (arbitarily forbid entry to, and confiscate without compensation) these books:

Well Women's Sourcebook: Guide to Women's Health and Wellness (The particular edition restricted has a large yellow daisy on the cover.)Bali Style. (Publisher's blurb reads: "A dazzling celebration of the traditional Balinese architecture, interiors, arts and crafts")The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey by Salman Rushdie. (As this is more a critical travelogue, I think it must be the author's name that has aroused the ire of the Johor Thought-Policers. Perhaps reading the words "Salman Rushdie" is corrupting? Beware, you have just read it twice. You will never be the same again...)Breastfeeding Your Baby. (There is a shocking pix on the cover. Maybe that is why it's restricted. It shows a woman's bare arm and shoulder as she looks down on her newborn. Or is it restricted because the baby appears as though it might possibly be naked?)

And that's just four books from apparently endless lists of books.

Maybe the officers have the best personal libraries in the country? Maybe they need something to read to wile away the tedium before another consignment turns up for them to look at? Maybe one of their kids had a birthday coming up?The whole thing is so ridiculous (and yet tragic) that we can only think of this kind of explanation, because there simply cannot be a rational way to explain banning a song book for 3 year olds - other than that they wanted a free book for their own kids. Especially when the officers or their Ministry refuses to give their own explanation.

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Awards

BEST FANTASY NOVEL OF THE YEAR Shortlisted Finalist2003: for The Aware; 2004: for The Tainted; 2006: for Heart of the Mirage; 2007: for The Song of the Shiver Barrens; 2009: for The Last Stormlord 2010: for Stormlord Rising 2011: for Stormlord's Exile 2014: The Lascar's Dagger 2015: The Dagger's Path 2016: The Fall of the Dagger